We won't know until June 5, National Doughnut Day if her creation—called A Nutter One—impressed the judges enough to win the $12,000 grand prize.

But Carol D’Angio returns home to Palm Beach Gardens Saturday after a whirlwind trip to Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters in Canton, Mass. for a doughnut bake-off. She’s one of 12 finalists in the “Create Dunkin's Next Donut” contest.

D’Angio, who has already won $1,200 as a finalist, worked with a doughnut “finisher” on her chocolate butter cream-filled yeast doughnut with peanut butter icing and chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

“Mine was OK, but the other ones were good too,” she says.

D'Angio's doughnut is in fourth place after on-line voting. But the judges' opinion is also part of the equation. When I spoke with her a few weeks ago, she told me a funny story about how she came up with the name of her doughnut.

Q: Did you have a good time?

I have a whole new appreciation of how to make doughnuts. They next time I go into Dunkin’ Donuts and someone arbitrarily says —‘I’ll take one of those.’ — I think I’ll say ‘Do you have any idea what goes into making that doughnut?'

Q: Why is that?

Quality control. Quality control assurances. When they order flour in order to make their doughnuts, they’ll test and see how the flour works. If they order ingredients to make filling, they’ll try them out in their test kitchen to make sure they’re perfect. They want everything to be the same for every Dunkin’ Donuts. You’re supposed to go into any one of them and get the same product.

Q: Did you and the other semifinalists have anything in common?

I don’t know that the group had anything in common. Some of them like to cook. Some of us were not much cooks at all. Like me. The ones who cook a lot were very vested. I think we were just average Americans, but even if we didn’t’ have a lot of things in common, we laughed so hard.

Q: You must have a good sense of how well the judges liked your doughnut?

Absolutely not. Mine was OK, but the other ones were good too. There were some that you couldn’t imagine how they tasted but you were really curious. When you tasted them, they were absolutely delicious. There was one called Toffee For your Coffee. (A glazed sour cream cake doughnut topped with chopped Heath Bar)

Q: But win or lose, you had a good time?

They could not have been any nicer. The sun could have been shining, but I don’t think they really had any control over that.

PHOTO: Carol D'Angio and a box of here creation called A Nutter One (Courtesy Dunkin' Donuts)

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About the author

The average American buys food from a restaurant almost six times a week. That’s a whopping 48 percent of our food budget, according to The National Restaurant Association. < More >

JOHN TANASYCHUK, a features writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, has written about food and dining for most of his journalism career.< More >